On the occasion of the Vietnam Brand Day (April 20), experts, managers and businessmen shared some issues surrounding the building and promotion of Vietnamese brands in an interview granted to Nhan Dan newspaper.
Brand – a factor deciding success
In the current process of Vietnam’s increasingly extensive integration into the global economy, superior competitiveness is a decisive factor for the success of enterprises in the market. Brands are valuable intangible assets that demonstrate businesses’ strengths in a most comprehensive and focused fashion, in order to make a difference compared to their competitors. Meanwhile, the majority of Vietnamese firms are small and medium-sized, and are not yet capable of investing much in branding. Therefore, supporting the branding of goods and services of businesses to increase the added value and boost exports, as well as to enhance the identificability of goods and services in the market, is an extremely urgent need in the process of national integration and development. The National Branding Programme has been implemented in service of that goal and is the only programme conducted by the Government to promote the national image and brand via the product brands. The programmes demonstrate the State’s patronage for product brands of high quality and business prestige, seeking to help Vietnamese companies to create a firm foothold in the domestic market and have conditions to develop their brands globally. Through the programme, the awareness of enterprises and brand managers on the issue of brand building and development has been significantly improved. Businesses are now aware of the brand’s important role as the key to increase the value of products as well as the value of businesses, thence taking the correct steps in building, developing and managing their brands, contributing to enhancing their competitiveness and affirming their position in the domestic market.
Tran Quoc Khanh
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade
Standing Vice President of the Vietnam National Brand Council
Branding requires perseverance and long-term efforts
.jpg "Vietnamese brands towards sustainable development ảnh 1")
It is quite clear that branding is crucial to a product and a business. However, modern retailers seem to be lagging behind. The modern trade model has been penetrating into Vietnam for more than 20 years. Statistics show that the country currently has about 750 supermarkets, 130 trade centres, and thousands of convenience stores and mini marts. The modern retail chains once flourished strongly as in the period of 1998-2012, but sometimes slumped, were shaken, and faced difficulties as in the 2013-2016 period. That happened for many reasons, notably including the inadequate attention paid to retail branding, in terms of both the macro aspect and businesses themselves. As assessed by many experts, there are now only two retail brands with a bright development prospect in the future, Saigon Coop and Vinmart. Meanwhile, despite their concerted efforts, most of the remaining retail brands, including those owned by state-owned enterprises (SOEs), have had to reduce their business locations or sell part of their shares to domestic and foreign companies. It is considered that retail brands are not only reflected in competitive prices and stable quality, but also lie in the humane relationship between businesses and consumers, and between retailers and goods suppliers.
Therefore, it is not easy but quite possible to create a retail brand imprint. What’s important are the efforts and determination from businesses themselves, alongside the legal assistance offered by the State, ministries, sectors and localities. Building a sustainable retail brand is a durable and long-term process. On the other hand, getting a retail brand is difficult, but keeping it alive and developing is even harder. In addition, the building of Vietnamese retail brands in the current climate is faced with numerous difficulties due to the fierce competition of foreign retailers, as well as between the forms of direct retail and online sales. Furthermore, branded retailers doing serious business have to compete against enterprises doing illegal business in the market, while illegally smuggled and counterfeit goods are also posing a big hindrance to the building of genuine retail brands. Hopefully, the State will control the market fairly and wholesomely, while strictly handling any violations, and widely disseminating the good retail brands in the market, so that they will become known and backed by consumers in a self-conscious manner.
Vu Vinh Phu
Former director of the Hanoi Department of Commerce
Building confidence makes the value of brands
Customers will decide the success or failure of a brand. Therefore, businesses need to build up confidence in their brand if they want to win the trust of customers. A brand is strong thanks to the confidence, and it is confidence that makes the value of a brand. When a brand has defects, it also means its breaking the trust among customers. Because brands are considered as an intangible and most valuable asset of a business, it is necessary to find every measure to preserve and promote its value. Therefore, in order to build a sustainable development path for the Tam Binh brand, we understand that the product quality is the factor deciding the success in occupying the market share. In addition, the building of confidence and moral education among employees has also been paid attention to by our company. En route to the success we have today, we always have to look for private ways to build trust among consumers. It is a process that requires enterprises to treat their customers with true hearts.
Pharmacist Le Thi Binh
General Director of Tam Binh Pharmaceutical Company
Branding requires organised and careful investment strategies
In the past few years, the Garment 10 Corporation – Joint Stock Company (Garment 10) has achieved remarkable results in the strategy of developing and promoting its brand. In addition to offering high-end fashion lines to meet the increasing domestic demand, Garment 10 has also focused its investment in fashionable products aimed at exports. The organised and careful investment strategy, based on the 4.0 technology being pursued by the whole world, is also the goal of Garment 10 in the process of conquering new technology peaks, aiming to better meet the needs of customers. Since May 2017, products bearing the Garment 10 brand have been exported and sold on Amazon.com in the US market. Furthermore, Garment 10 has also invested in building an online shopping website, May10.vn, for consumers in the Vietnamese market (officially opened on January 11, 2018).
Currently, Garment 10 is also one of the few Vietnamese manufacturers to sell products of their brands (from fabric selection to the design and production of finished products bearing the company’s label) on world-famous shopping websites, such as Amazon and Alibaba. Garment 10 has to face a lot of difficulties in implementing the sales of products on Amazon. The biggest difficulty is to find information and data on the market in order to research and design the suitable fashion products, followed by the preparation and arrangement of logistics activities in the supply chain to bring products from Vietnam to the US consumers in particular, and other countries worldwide, in the shortest period of time and with the most reasonable costs. Therefore, in order to achieve the final success, businesses must outline their plans and prepare everything thoroughly. Via the e-commerce sales channel, Garment 10 has also attracted many customers, whilst signing contracts which are diverse in terms of the types and quantity of products. This shows that Garment 10 has attained its place in the market. Garment 10 will continue to promote the building and promotion of its brand, considering this as one of the company’s key strategies in 2018.
Than Duc Viet
Deputy Director General of the Garment 10 Corporation JSC
